Mistaken
by Primrue
Summary: "The words are the last thing your soulmate will say to you." Hermione blinked. "Well, how does anyone know that they're with their soulmate then? You wouldn't know until one of them dies." Hermione hears about the words witches and wizards have on their arms and is led to believe her soulmate is one person, only to realise in the end that it had been another the whole time.


Mistaken

* * *

~o0o~

* * *

Hermione ran her fingers over the words, stuck between horrified and confused.

 _Bloody hell._

It was bad enough that she had words etched to her skin, but to have it be _those_ words? Oh, what if her parents saw them? Or worse; what if the teachers did?! Would they send her back? Hermione felt the panic rise, her heart beginning to beat furiously, and struggled to take a deep breath. But eventually she did. And then another, steadier one.

Finally collecting herself a bit, she attempted to look at it logically; the words didn't appear to have been engraved using regular methods, so it had to be magic. Was there a charm for having words appear on someone's arm? Most likely, she thought and frowned. She would have to check her books for a counter-spell before someone saw it. If this was a prank then it was a cruel prank. After all, she might get into trouble for having bad words on her!

In the midst of her grumbling she barely noticed that Neville had returned to the compartment. The boy entered and closed the door before sitting down opposite her. He looked a bit defeated and his shoulders were a tad slouched, but thankfully that meant his mind was preoccupied and therefore didn't notice when Hermione hastily pulled her sleeve down.

"Thank you for helping me search, Hermione," said Neville, breaking the silence but still keeping his eyes on the floor. He sighed and looked up, seeming to have realised he was being rude in not thanking her properly. "I know I might have been even worse off if I'd have to search alone."

"That's all right, Neville," she said, attempting a smile but too busy fidgeting with the hem of her sleeve to have it be genuine. Sure, she was glad not to be completely alone on her first train ride, but she couldn't help but feel that she'd been stuck with the one person who might prove to end up more isolated when school started than she herself. She'd never been easy to be around, but to befriend a boy who lost his pet toad five seconds into climbing aboard the train . . . it might make her less desirable in others' eyes and could she afford that? Perhaps befriending Harry Potter would be better; after all, he had seemed like he was kind enough, and with his scar he might prove to be understanding of her own newfound, undesired mark . . .

"I just hope Trevor's okay . . ." said Neville, his sad voice bringing Hermione's thoughts back to the present. She looked at the boy. He might not look like much to others, but he did possess knowledge she had yet to learn, growing up amongst wizards and witches. She nodded and hummed in response to Neville's concerns as he continued to speak, but unable to hold it off any longer, she shoved her arm into his face.

"What is this?" she demanded.

"What is what?" Neville asked, looking a bit frightened now.

"This!" Hermione said, retreating a bit so he could see the words properly. "They just appeared and I can't rub it off, and I don't want anyone to think I wrote it."

Neville blinked at her. "Wow, you've already met them?"

Hermione sniffed. "Met who?"

"Your soulmate."

"My what? Neville, there's no such thing."

The until now shy boy grew stubborn. "Is too. Everyone says so. My parents have the words to prove it."

"Really?" asked Hermione. She hadn't read any of this in a book, and when she tells Neville he laughs.

"I'm not surprised," he says, "It's such an obvious thing among us that it wouldn't pop up unless it's in a very basic book for five year olds."

"Well," Hermione blushed, "I don't have any of those."

Neville smiled.

"My gran says Hogwarts is usually the place where people get them, because it's where you meet so many people. My parents weren't the same age though, so it took them a year until they found each other and had the words show." He stopped and looked a bit sad. "The words are the last thing your soulmate will say to you."

Hermione blinked. "Well, how does anyone know that they're with their soulmate then? You wouldn't know until one of them dies."

"They knew because they met and noticed how it showed as soon as they'd met," Neville said, but then grew serious, and his voice drifted enough that Hermione had to strain herself to hear it, "And you don't have to die for it to be the last words . . ."

Sensing that this was a delicate subject for Neville, since she'd quickly gathered he lived with his grandmother and not his parents, Hermione changed the subject. In the back of her mind, however, she couldn't help but wonder who her soulmate was.

She glanced down at her arm and frowned.

 _Whoever they are, they must be absolutely juvenile._

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Fred stared in fascination at the marks on his arm. They hadn't been there, but now they were, looking as if they always had. Incredible.

George and Lee were sniggering opposite him.

"Well, now we know it's a girl at least," George joked, grinning mockingly.

Fred rolled his eyes. George had had his words appear on the first day of school, and what had first been a dissatisfaction in people being able to tell them apart with a mere showing of arm, turned quickly into 'Let's tease Fred because he's not mature enough to meet his soulmate yet' and 'What if it's the Giant Squid? Or a Flobberworm?'. And now that Fred's words finally appeared, they were ridiculous, which hardly helped the situation.

"Yeah, yeah," Fred interrupted his two best friends as they were busy laughing at his words, "calm down."

George sobered a bit, worried he'd taken it too far. "You okay, though, Freddie?" he asked.

Fred smiled. "It's just words, like anyone else. I don't feel any different. And anyway, never put much weight into the whole soulmate business. Mum and Dad don't even know if they're soulmates."

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Bloody hell, Harry," said Ron, saying what they both thought out loud at something Harry was telling them. The two of them had exchanged glances during Harry's rant, not knowing when to cut in, but fortunately Harry had paused to breathe.

While Ron did his part as Harry's best friend, Hermione took a look at her redheaded friend, as she'd been prone to do lately. The words on her arm burned, but she'd never dared show them to anyone. It drove the rest of them crazy in the tower, but she wasn't alone; for whatever reason Parvati Patil refused to share hers too. So it wasn't all bad. What truly was bad, though, was the fact that Ron used Hermione's words . . . a lot. So much so, in fact, that she had suspected for a while—a few years even—that he might be her soulmate. But something also told her that she shouldn't put weight into them, and that she should let Ron like her for who she was rather than a possibility that they had a bond.

" . . .and Hermione agrees, don't you, 'Mione?" Ron looked at her, his blue eyes almost startling her.

Hermione blinked but quickly recovered and gave her friend a smile. "Yes."

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

It was difficult. It was hard. Why did he have to be so bleeding stupid?

Hermione sat in the corner of her room alone, crying her eyes out. All over the fact that the boy she fancied was with someone else. Pathetic.

"Hermione, darling," her mother called outside her door, having given a gentle knock but not entered, perhaps because of some instinct mothers had about these things. Or perhaps because she'd heard Hermione cry and knew it would embarrass her daughter to be caught in such a situation. "It's time for dinner."

"Coming, Mum," Hermione called out to the best of her abilities. Her voice had sounded a bit raspy, but otherwise good, and she hoped it would help convincing her mother not to pry.

She didn't.

Hermione heard her mother's footsteps fade away until they were surely already down the stairs. She sniffed and wiped under eyes with her hooded jumper. Boys were so stupid. Sure, Ron was free to date whomever he liked (and clearly he was doing just that) but a part of her had felt like the two of them had been heading somewhere earlier that year, and she'd thought he'd felt it too. And she knew that although his words on his arm ("Good night") were hardly revealing, she also knew that Ron had acquired them during the train ride to Hogwarts which was the same time they had first met. Of course he'd met a lot of different other people there as well, but the phrase on her arm matched his personality! It would be easy—so easy— to show them to him and make him see that they could work, they could make it work . . .

Hermione glanced out the window at the thick layer of snow coating the neighbourhood.

 _But I want him to want me for me . . ._

She sighed and headed downstairs, determined to learn from two people who had chosen each other regardless of soulmate markings.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Those are some words there, Granger," said a voice from behind her.

Hermione immediately turned and faced Fred. And she knew with certainty it was him, he had two ears.

"I don't see you showing yours," she said, a bit of venom behind her words, not necessarily solely directed at him, but at herself as well. She'd sworn she'd glamoured them . . .

Adding another charm to her arm she faced the grinning Weasley twin.

"Well," he shrugged, "after the five hundred jokes that I've had from various people—"

"—meaning George and Lee," Hermione said.

He pointed a finger at her, warning her not to interrupt him, but there was a twinkle in his eyes that told her he was enjoying himself, "You don't particularly care to reveal them after having to endure that torment from your two closest friends, no."

Hermione's lips twitched but she lowered her gaze from him and aimed them absently to the dance floor. "People aren't too keen to talk about their marks anymore, have you noticed? They probably realised a lot of them will be due to the war."

Fred stepped up to stand beside her, nodding solemnly, her bad mood obviously having spread to him as well. She wasn't sure she liked it. People like Fred should always be smiling.

"I think my brother wants a dance," Fred said, nudging her shoulder slightly.

Hermione looked up and saw that he was indeed right. She blushed.

Fred laughed, "Go get him, Granger."

She shot him an annoyed look which earned her a laugh again, but she couldn't be bothered. Ron was waiting for her.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Hermione and Ron stood huddled in a corner while everyone else prepared loudly for battle. She could feel the adrenaline coursing through her veins and she couldn't pin down if she felt excitement and relief over finally reaching this moment after months—years, really—of anxiousness stressing over getting here, or if it was plain old fear. She gnawed her lip.

Regardless of what she felt, this battle would decide everything, she just knew it would.

"We need something to destroy the cup with," she said.

Ron nodded and looked thoughtful, much like when he would play chess, until suddenly his eyes blinked and brightened. "The Chamber of Secrets! It has the Basilisk, and the fangs would be—"

"Infused with venom! Of course! That's quite brilliant, Ron," Hermione said, beaming at him.

Ron smiled and his ears adopted a pink tinge.

The two of them made to move and get out of the Room of Requirement, when Ginny approached, along with the twins. The youngest Weasley asked where they were going.

"We're er . . ." began Hermione, conflicted about telling her friend that they were going to a place where she'd almost died. "We're going to the bathroom."

"The bathroom?" repeated Ginny and George.

"Yeah," said Ron. "It's important and we'll be back before you know it."

"Hang on," interrupted Fred before they could make to leave again. "What did you say?"

"It's important—"

"Yeah, not you," said Fred, almost harshly. He had a almost wild look in his eyes. As if he needed something confirmed. Next to him, Ginny and George exchanged worried glances.

Hermione stared back at him, saying her words slowly, as if talking to someone stupid, "Going to the bathroom."

Something flashed in Fred's eyes and he stood there, seeming as he had a hard time breathing. "Bloody hell."

Hermione's brows pulled together as she continued to look at him, but Ron soon took her hand and reminded all of them that they had to leave. Fred took a step forward as if to follow them, but Ginny and George stopped him. Hermione glanced over her shoulder and saw them talk to Fred in low and soothing voices.

" . . . but it's a battle, what if something happens," she heard him say. George and Ginny hurried again to speak to him.

The last thing she saw was Fred inhaling and exhaling deeply, smile, and look up from the ground at her. And then the door closed.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

There had been a bang and the whole world turned upside down. There was ringing in her ear but she could still distinguish the pained roars of Ron and Percy.

There had been a bang and Fred Weasley was gone.

Hermione grasped her arm, watching what had happened with so much sadness. She could feel the tears sting her eyes and a sob escape. Something heavy settles in her stomach, and not just because of what had just occurred before her. What was it Fred had said before they'd left? She knew it was there in the back of her mind, but for all that she struggled she couldn't manage conjuring it.

It was . . .

It was . . .

It was all different colours as curses flew above their heads and Harry and Ron pulled Hermione down to the ground.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Hermione walked slow unsteady steps to where the Weasley's were huddled over Fred's body. What could she say? What could she do?

Nothing, she realised. There was nothing.

Her eyes still burned from crying, or perhaps it was from the dust that had yet to settle around the collapsing school. She dragged a hand across her face to get rid of the worst of the grime. It didn't come off any dirtier which meant that it was stuck there for now. Honestly, she couldn't care less, because the closer she got to the body, the clearer her memory got. Eventually she's so close that she could see his freckles and the smile that still graced his face even in death, and, worst of all, the place where his sleeve was torn. Hermione noticed the words and all of her fears were confirmed.

 _Going to the bathroom._

Hermione screamed and fell to the floor.

* * *

~o0o~

* * *

A/N:

…I'm so terribly sorry….

/Primrue


End file.
